This weekend was the yearly retreat for Dumbarton Methodist Church. We drove down to West River on Friday Night and came back on Sunday.

As retreats go, this one went very smoothly, mostly because my daughter is now seven years old. When she asked if she could do something, I reflexively said yes. Go back to the room to play without supervision? Yes. Get food on their own and sit on their own? Yes. Stay up? Yes. Mss Dash's friend M. was there as well, and those two power-played for most of the weekend. There were two late-night sleepovers as well. On Saturday night, I went to bed before those two did, and we all fell asleep with the lights on.

On Saturday morning, I helped herd the kids about. The boys were a handful and a half. The only thing that kept them occupied was running after and popping bubbles. They did that for well over an hour.

The game switch has flipped for the girls. We had multiple round of Uno on Sunday morning. We played in teams. All of them vs. me. You can guess who won the most. I had forgotten all the Uno rules, so it took a while to remember them, and I am sure that there are rules that I've forgotten.

The church hold a variety show on the Saturday night of the retreat. (We don't call it a talent show because folks don't necessarily claim to have talent.) Howard wrote a short Guy Noir script making fun of politics, and he asked for folks who could read a script cold. Both I and Jenny volunteered, because with all that storybook reading to our daughter, we could both read characters cold. We did a pretty acceptable job, although I had the easier time because I only played one character.